Delhi Police unearths a car ‘mortuary’

Officers found that the stolen vehicles were kept at a dumpyard near Meerut, where they were broken up into pieces. Police recovered parts of Ford Endeavour and Mahindra Scorpio cars stolen from south Delhi.TNN | January 12, 2017, 08:04 IST

NEW DELHI: Delhi Police has unearthed a “mortuary” for stolen cars while probing a series of vehicle theft cases in south and east Delhi.

Officers found that the stolen vehicles were kept at a dumpyard near Meerut, where they were broken up into pieces. Police recovered parts of Ford Endeavour and Mahindra Scorpio cars stolen from south Delhi.

The prime accused arrested in the case is a south Delhi dairy owner, Dilawar Singh, who employed men to spot luxury cars parked at upscale colonies, which they would steal in the night.

Police said that Singh, along with his associates Mohammed Mehtab and Mohammed Aftab, had stolen a Wagon R from South Campus, following which a probe was initiated. “A police team spotted the men with a stolen Swift Dzire in south Delhi. They were caught along with another associate, Mohammed Salman,” said Ishwar Singh, DCP south.

Later, Singh told police that Fazal, a native of Meerut, had helped them in stealing more than 25 luxury cars from Delhi, which were then disposed of in Lucknow and Meerut. A stolen Hyundai Verna, having fake numberplate, was also recovered from Singh. The accused told police that they used to dismantle the stolen cars at a godown near Kaweri Colony in Meerut. A raid was conducted during which officers recovered dismantled pieces of stolen Honda City, Toyota Fortuner and Mahindra Scorpio.

“At the instance of the accused, four more stolen cars and one motorbike were also recovered,” said additional DCP, Chinmoy Biswal.

After dismantling the cars, they used to sell the parts at a scrap market in Sotiganj, Uttar Pradesh. In order to evade police, the accused used to drive away the stolen cars within an hour to Meerut via roads that did not have barricades.

Police found that Singh had stolen the Ford Endeavour about six months ago, along with his associate from Kalkaji. On the same day they had tried to steal a Toyota Pajero from Pandav Nagar, but were spotted by a passerby who raised an alarm. They had threatened the man at gunpoint and fled.